Is Jailbreak poor charity?

At first glance I would have really like to do Jailbreak and this was my first clue that it is a horrible and depraved activity.

I’m going to get so much for RAG

I’m not trying to vilify any jailbreakers, far from it, but it’s also important not to glorify things simply because they are done in the name of charity and goodwill.

One of the problems with the whole Jailbreak paradigm, as a returning jailbreakist told me, is that there is a slight loophole allowing you to spend the cash monies that you raise/busk/sell your body for to get you places. I’m not the only one who finds the idea of spaffing money that you took from hapless tourists in Hyde park on a pointless ticket to Boston a bit repugnant.

Richard Branson praised the sprit of adventure of Jailbreak and yes I agree that it’s more adventurous than the weekly Park End pilgrimage to but the true stuff of adventure takes more than 36 hours. You’re not going to get on the road proper with your Monday afternoon tute looming and the idea of actually covering any distance to wind up in a cool place (ahem, Tokyo) is defeated by instantly boomeranging back to the Oxford bubble.

To anyone who actually hitchhiked in a genuine manner, well done. But don’t try and tell me that you enjoyed turning round just as you were starting to have something to show for your hours thumbing it to unsympathetic Range Rovers. Also, how about next time trying to do it without a big old jailbreak sign and a letter of authorisation to fall back on?

I’m gonna start my essay in the car!

It did raise a lot of money, though. Which is why I didn’t plump for the slight syntactical alteration of “Jailbreak is poor charity”. There’s a lot to be said for making charity interesting and high profile. That’s why you might, in your time as a captain of industry/ management consultant, attend a charitable event where the punters are swilling Petrus and noshing on caviar.

And who doesn’t like caviar?